Sam Allardyce unhappy with Sunderland's reaction to Leicester City taking the lead

Richard Mennear

A frustrated Sam Allardyce was left angry by the reaction of his Sunderland side to Leicester City taking the lead.

England and Foxes striker Jamie Vardy opened the scoring in the 66th minute, taking advantage of a long Danny Drinkwater ball over the top of the Sunderland defence.

He coolly slotted the ball past Vito Mannone to give Leicester the lead, with Vardy adding a second in added on time.

Allardyce's side had gone in at the break goalless and were more than a match for the league leaders for an hour of the game.

But they fell apart after Vardy's opener and couldn't find a way back into the game.

"We were nervous today because of how big the game is," said Allardyce.

"It's a legacy of not picking up the points when we should have done. That caused us to do the wrong things to try and get back in the game.

"We didn't pass it anywhere near as well as we can. I think that was the main problem, not Leicester.

"We kept losing the ball in good areas, it was nothing like the passing game we showed against West Brom.

"We switched off once and our defence allows Jamie Vardy to do what is his major strength.

"He does what every top goalscorer does and scores it. The disappointing thing was how we reacted to that.

"I thought we were very poor after that. Jack Rodwell should have scored, you can't get a better chance than that and it would have put it at 1-1, then in the final five you have to throw caution to the wind and they created some chances.

"Norwich was always going to be big. There would be less pressure if we had won but today was always going to be difficult to win.

"We are under extreme pressure that we have to make sure we handle," Allardyce told Sky Sports.